Sleep to Learn!
Sleep is one of the most important physiological needs we have, and sleep provides a lot of benefits. It’s the time when the brain processes what happened through the day and consolidates memory, the body repairs itself, muscles grow, hormones are released. A good night of sleep prevents sleepiness during the day, gives more energy and focus, improves mood, fortifies the immune system, lowers inflammation, and so much more. This article will help you use sleep to your advantage to improve your life and ability to learn.
Sleep Deprivation vs Performance
Studies have shown that getting an average of 7–9 hrs sleep is crucial for proper functioning (Sleep Needs). Sleeping less than that will lead to sleep deprivation, and there is no such thing as habituating your brain to need less sleep. Sleep deprivation’s most recognizable symptom is feeling drowsy during the day, sleeping in buses, cars, at your desk, or as soon as your head hits the pillow. But its effects go much deeper than that.
Sleep deprivation affects the brain and cognitive functions. When you are sleep deprived, your reaction time is slower, thought processing is lower, you make worse decisions, and it’s harder to focus. To make things worse, sleep deprivation impairs the immune system, leaving you more likely to acquire colds and other illnesses. Some of the longer-term symptoms include depression, memory loss, diabetes, and other serious diseases.
As a student, it’s especially important you get enough sleep, as it helps consolidate short-term to long-term memory. Sacrificing sleep for study time is actually detrimental to long-term learning.
You may be thinking, “That concerns other people, I can sleep a couple of hours and be fine all day”. Or even, “I’ve been sleeping for 6 hours since high school and I’m fine”. But remember that It is hard to perceive your own levels of attention, effectiveness, and reaction time. It’s easy to consider them normal if you’ve been getting less than optimal sleep for some time. However, research shows that much of this is due to renorming or simply unawareness, with people getting less sleep feeling great but showing consistent decreases in performance.
Why are you sleep deprived and how to prevent that from happening?
Sleep is one of the most constant aspects of our lives. While unexpected things can happen, sleeping less to catch up with work is something we can plan for and mitigate. You likely have many assignments, classes, and meetings scheduled each week. How can you prepare for those in advance, considering your need for sleep, rather than waiting until the night before? When you do end up with little or even no sleep, you can reflect on what got you there and develop behaviors that help you avoid that pattern in the future.
Quality vs Quantity
Quantity of sleep is important, but it varies for different people, as it has to do with factors like genetics and energy used during the day. Most people do well with 7–9 hours of sleep and a few lucky ones only need 6 hours or less (statistically, you’re probably not one of them, so chill). A good way to figure out how much you need to sleep each night is noting the time you went to bed, the time you woke up, and how you felt at different times during the day. If you do that consistently, you may start finding patterns and find the best times for you.
Beware, sleeping too much is also a problem. Studies have found memory impairments and decreased cognitive function correlated with oversleeping. It is also a symptom of conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Quality of sleep matters too! Having good sleep allows the body to spend more time in deep sleep. In doing so, you’ll reap more benefits from good sleep and may find even yourself needing a few minutes less sleep. There are many factors involved, such as consistency of sleep, hormones, light (the darker the better), temperature (preferably on the cooler side), etc. and we will cover many of them in this article.
On a related note, working on those factors also helps you fall asleep faster, and in doing so you can get the same amount of sleep with less time in bed. About 15 minutes seem to be the sweet spot. If you sleep too fast it may also be a sign that you’re not getting enough sleep, so try to get a little more sleep and see how you feel.
Consistency
The daily cycle your body goes through is reflective of your circadian clock.. It’s most important function is to tell your body when to sleep and when to be alert. If you always sleep and wake up at the same time, it helps your body feel rested and energized during the day and balances your hormones.⁶ It makes you able to go to sleep without much trouble at night, enter the deeper cycles faster, and wake up without needing an alarm (or at least not wanting to break it).
Even if you have to stay up late one night, having this cycle dialed in helps you feel less sleepy during the day. The most important and easiest to control part is the wake-up time, so it’s important to stay consistent on that and take a nap if you need one rather than extending sleep in the morning..
Journaling & Power Down Hour
Sleeping isn’t an on-off switch, but rather a process. One of the main drivers of the process is the exposure to sunlight. The production of melatonin and other hormones, which happens in the dark, triggers our need for sleep. However, the body processes blue light almost identically to sunlight, so it’s good to diminish exposure to blue light before sleep. You can do that by buying blue light blocking glasses, configuring your computer to night mode, diminishing the brightness of your cell phone, etc….
You can use this time to set up things that could worry you the next morning. Prepare your clothes, plan your day,but don’t engage in any very activities. To further help you quiet your mind, you can journal. Write down your thoughts and plans instead of cycling through things in your head over and over. Intentionally reflecting about something before sleep can also prime the unconscious to process the topic and make new connections during sleep, facilitating new perspectives and insights the next day. This is also a good time to relax the body. Stretching, relaxation and breathing techniques are great ways to quiet the body and the mind before going to sleep.
Waking Up & The Morning Routine
Waking up for most people is also a process. Having a routine is very helpful to wake up with more energy, without snoozing the alarm multiple times. It’s good to have something habitual to look forward to, especially on anxiety-inducing days.
There are many activities that can be part of a morning routine. A few easy options include:
- Making your bed
- Drinking water — You lose a lot of water during the night
- Writing down dreams
- Stretching
- Meditating
- Eating Breakfast
- Planning the day ahead
- Reviewing the goals for the day
- Journaling
- Reading
Try to make the habits enjoyable as they should brighten up your mornings! And start slowly, if you pick one or two habits at a time it’s easier to stick to them.
Sharing a room
At college and even at home, most of us have to share a room with at least one more person. But that doesn’t have to keep you from having a good night of sleep. As a roommate:
Keep your Alarms to Yourself, and get your roommates to do the same
The ideal would be everyone waking up at the same time. If that is not possible, make sure the alarm of the person waking up earlier doesn’t wake up everyone else.
To do that, there are a few options. You can:
- Keep your alarm close to you. Below your pillow, in the pillowcase, beside the bed.
- Make it gradually louder. If it’s too loud it will wake up everyone regardless of where it is
- Do not hit snooze. If you absolutely can’t get up, maybe keep your cell phone in your hand so you can stop the alarm as soon as it starts vibrating
Define sleeping rules
There are many places to socialize and work, but only one place to sleep, the room. So, to make the room a good place for everyone to sleep, it’s good to go through a few questions and define rules that make sense for all the roommates. A few ideas are:
- Are lights allowed after 11 pm?
- Are guests allowed after 10 pm?
- What time do you wake up in the morning?
- How quiet should our alarms be to not bother each other too much?
You can define them as hard rules “Lights out by 11 pm” or more towards etiquette “Lights out when Sally is preparing for bed, which is usually around 11 pm”. Either way, the room’s primary purpose is to be a place for rest, and everyone should collaborate towards that.
OMG I couldn’t sleep, is my life over?
Fortunately, most of us can function on less than optimal sleep. If you keep thinking you won’t be able to do anything because you didn’t sleep well, you probably will be much less productive. It won’t be just the lack of sleep causing it, but the way you think about it. Expectations play a big role, especially in personal, subjective things like attention and focus. So if you couldn’t sleep properly, try to believe you can still get things done. You can also try a short cat nap (~25 min) to help on days when you didn’t meet your sleep goals.
Closing Remarks
It is easy to take sleep for granted, but thinking about it intentionally is a very effective way to improve many areas of your life and be a happier, more productive person. You can start by reflecting on a few of these questions:
1 — What would be your ideal times to go to sleep and wake up every day given the demands of your life?
2 — What is one thing you could do before going to sleep that could make falling asleep easier??
3 — What is one thing you could do after waking up to be ready for the day?
4 — If you share a room, is it currently a good place for sleep?*
If you have an innovative method for learning, an interest in writing about a topic related to learning and wellness or any questions email us (studykit2020@gmail.com)
